He climbed from 14th to fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix thanks to a combination of a crash at the start of the race and several bold passes by the Brawn driver.

He was already in a position to win the title when fortune dealt another blow to his team mate. Lewis Hamilton passed Rubens Barrichello for third with ten laps to go and clipped the Brawn’s left-rear tyre in the process. Barrichello was forced to make an extra pit stop, and fell to eighth.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for Button’s career. He spent the last two seasons in the doldrums as Honda produced two woefully uncompetitive cars.

The Japanese manufacturer quit F1 at the end of last season. But Button stayed with the newly-formed Brawn team, taking a pay cut as 40% of the staff were laid off to cut costs.

His loyalty was rewarded as the team’s 2009 car proved a triumph. He won six of the first seven rounds, giving him a 26-point lead over team mate Barrichello.

Although Button has struggled to repeat his early season form, he has continued to collect points regularly. And whatever the final racs brings, no driver will win more races this year than he has.

Countries’ champions

Button takes the world championship title from fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton. It’s the first consecutive championship win for a British driver or drivers in four decades: Graham Hill winning in 1968 and Jackie Stewart in 1969.

By a strange coincidence Button won the championship by finishing fifth – just as Hamilton did last year.

Britain now has ten different world champions, who have won 14 titles between them, more than any other country:

But wow, just got back from my mates house, an Button proved me completely wrong. Won that race through aggresive overtaking, I would have liked to have seen how far he would have got if if he passed Kobayashi earlier. Man has more balls then I initialy credited him with.

Haha did you see ow Bernie clasped his fingers as he hugged Button? That really made me laugh, Button seemed like a big giant compared to Bernie lol..

Jake Humphrey looked quite surprised when Button hugged him lol

I loved the scene when Jenson just came out of his car and Rubens was there waiting to congratulate him, JB jumped and they hugged- heartbreaking, happy, and touching at the same time! Great sportsmanship from Rubens!

Then Jenson hugging his teary Dad – aww!

He finally realized his dream! After years and years of struggling in bad cars, he waited patiently for his moment and never gave up! He stayed loyal to his team, never really complained o created problems.. And now when he finally got a good car and won 6 races, after his wins the other teams started to catch up with him YET he still managed to collect valuable points-bar only race that he was DNF because of an accident that wasn’t his fault-and maintained his lead..
And in his final race he raced his heart out from 14th in nothing but a champion’s drive to 5th – a position even better than the minimum he needed due to Ruben’s position!
He didn’t hesitate one bit, he was out to get the championship and nothing was going to stop him! Overtaking everyone that came in his way successfully showing his true talent..

And after aaaaaallllllll of this ppl still say he doesn’t deserve it?!

Not only does Bernie tiny, he seems very fragile. Button was giving everyone giant bear hugs except for Bernie: it looked like he was afraid he’d break him!

Now he can kick back and enjoy Abu Dhabi. Everyone will be going for a win because the two titles are decided. Although maybe Hamilton and Raikkonen will still do some point racing for 3rd in the Constructors.

Grow up guysâ€¦He wins regardless of which computation you use
1) Most ptsâ€¦.check
2) Most race winsâ€¦.check
3) Most pts finishesâ€¦.check
4) Most overtakesâ€¦..check (well at least of the top 4 cars)

I suppose this is also the crowd that believes Massa should be WDC. What he needs is a Tony Robbins. If he doesnâ€™t get over what happened in 2008 he will be eaten alive by Alonso and Hamilton for the rest of his career and like Barichello he will be 37 asking what da heck happened.

I disagree, after quali I agreed, but his race changed my mind. To make his strategy work and to take advantage of luck thrown his way Button had to overtake and overtake, agressively and skilfully. It took guts and that was definately a champions drive.

Wouldn’t have said that before the race but he won it on merit today from a difficult position in not even one of the fastest cars.

Anyways, Niki Lauda doffed his hat, man made a very good point, can’t argue with Niki.

No, Keke Rosberg in 1982 was by far the least deserving “champion”. Button earned the necessary points, but he is a one-hit-wonder and I bet he will never trouble the top of the championship tables again. Button will be known as the Jacques Villeneuve of the 21st century.

Not necessarily. Imagine if Ferrari build a dominant car next year, Alonso leads Massa 1-2 in the first 14 races so he has 140 points and Massa 112. Then Alonso DNFs the final four rounds, Massa wins them all and wins the title despite never having actually beaten Alonso in a straight fight.

Peter what if my some chance it is engine failure or something happens which is not Alonso’s fault? That is hardly fair, but then again the drivers championship will always to some extent come down to the reliability of the car and external factors.

Yes Kobayashi looked great today, makes the other rookies in F1 look silly and also the comments that it takes time to adapt – he had very little dry running in time with the practice sessions and qualifying, but performed brilliantly for a first race.

Agree, Kobayashi showed a real racers instinct. Button did call him crazy but I don’t think he was expecting him to put up such a good fight.
With a bit of practice and understanding that he can’t weave so much in F1 he could go a long way. We all know Japan needs a good driver. He surely deserves a drive for next year.

Congratulations to Button, he has the most points, he deserves it this season. But not since Villeneuve has a more medicore driver won the F1 championship – it is sad. There are a bunch of drivers that are clearly faster and better than Button, to mention a few: Raikkonen, Massa, Alonso, Hamilton, Kubica and Vettel. Button just benefitted from having the best car early in the season and his team mate not being the fastest brazilian out there.

Did you see that drive? DID YOU SEE THAT DRIVE? Someone PLEASE tell me, in all seriously, that his race today was not a champion’s drive. Button has had more spectacular – and crucial – overtakes than anyone else on the grid this year!

My real gripe with 2009 is FIA’s deliberate KERS back-track which left Ferrari, McLaren and BMW with seriously unaerodynamic cars compared to the rest, and the approval of the double diffusor – where Brawn basically headed the working group to set the regulations and then twisted them. Clever but unsporting. FIA/BE’s attempt to ‘reverse the grid’ I think. It worked.

Had Ecclestone’s third bit of championship-rigging worked, the medal system, Button would have been champion way before today.

Get your facts straight before making derogatory remarks about people.

Ross Brawn formally warned all the other teams and FIA, in late 2008, and long before the 2009 rules were set in stone, that there were dangerous loopholes in the regs planned for 2009. He warned that a really clever engineering team could drive a coach and horses through the aero rules.

They virtually laughed him out of the room.

But they stopped laughing when Barcelona testing began.

Brawn won the constuctors championship fair and square, though they certainly won’t have things so easy next year….so bring on 2010 !

Not aware of the story regarding Ross Brawn heading the regs commitee etc.. but the ambiguous statements in the specification could have been easily pointed out just by asking for clarification on a particular point (e.g. Is a split level diffuser allowed?), if this was done (by at least one team) surely all teams would be informed about any amendment to the spec? As it happened all teams were free to interpret the specification to gain a design advantage; all part of the game but most teams decided to read between the lines to adopt the design which they knew the spec. had originally ‘intended’ and so avoid the risk of their design being ruled illegal.
If Brawn did point this out, specifically as a loophole, it would seem he was well aware that the specification had intended to rule out double diffusers.. he took the risk and it paid off. I personally have doubts over whether it would still have been ruled ‘legal’ if, for example, mclaren and ferrari had come out with a double diffuser design. I don’t see how rules and regulations can be definitive if they are authorized somewhat arbitrarily depending on who / what you are. But hey .. all in the name of entertainment.
Bad luck to Barrichello (esp. with the puncture – I guess Hamilton wonâ€™t be booking any holidays in Brazil any time soon :D), Vettel (who will undoubtedly be world champion in coming years) and the Red Bull team (watch out for another strong performance next year from them).
Congrats to Button and the Brawn team… fairytale ending and Webber. Agree that Button did drive well in todayâ€™s race, could have silenced his critics with more of the same through the latter part of the season!!
Looking forwards to the next race and especially the next season now!

As McLaren found at Spa 2008, the answer would seem to be don’t ask Whiting anything remotely important!

Leon

‘Unsporting’ is hardly the most derogatory statement, I can think of worse. Brawn was/were clever, sure. But I agree with Green Streamer that before or after the fact, FIA were happy to see the advantage tilt to the ‘smaller’ teams this season, perhaps to ensure the number of teams on the grid. i.e. Had McLaren, say, come up with the double diffuser, I doubt it would have been allowed. Though we’ll never know of course.